Cousin Got Married..Check...I Got Fatter...Check...Now I'm Kickin Serious Booty...Pending Check

Well there was a couple of crazy weeks of lifestyle change failures.  Now we are on the other side of all of the big events for the spring and it's time we start boosting our exercise routines and healthier lifestyle.  Tonight I am going to work on getting some tasks out of the way on my computer and then I am going to plan out my entire weekly workout routine.  It needs a reboot and I plan on making it exciting and fun to get into.  On a side note, I will be using an app or two to make it more interesting and thought I would share those with you right now.

Nexercise (link)

Nexercise is a fun little app for the iPhone and Android phones that tracks your workouts with a little extra incentive, PRIZES!  The more you work out the more point and "pocket change" you earn that you can spend towards three different things.  First, you can choose to spend these points on entering contests for a chance to win big prizes.  Second, you can spend your points towards gift cards! They offer a variety of brands, from Puma to Nike.  Third, you can choose to translate those points into money towards charities.  There are a couple other options I don't quite understand at the moment because I don't have accounts for them, but there's "Pocket Change" and "Kiip" as well as the mPOINTS I just discussed.

GymPact (link)

GymPact is quite the interesting entry in the whole fitness app game.  The idea is this...You form a "pact" each week of the number of days you plan on working out next week.  Then you pledge a certain dollar amount that you are willing to lose if you miss a workout.  The kicker here is that if you keep the pact, you MAKE MONEY!! :)  If you are willing to use this as an incentive (losing money if you miss workouts and earning money if you stick to it) then this is for you!

Needless to say, I will be using Nexercise for now, until exercise becomes routine in my life.  

The goal is to lose what I gained back the last few weeks by my Doctor's appointment in 19 days.  Jocelyn started working towards her goal today.  She began the Couch to 5K program.  I will let her talk about that more next time she posts, but basically she is shooting for running the Run or Dye 5K.  I am looking forward to that purely because I get to throw dye on her while she is running hehehehe ;) 

If I'm not too embarrassed by my workout routine I may post it up! hah just messin, I won't be, so I shall post it when it is done and everyone can help me tweak it to make it better if you like :)

Michael OUT!

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry, HULK SMASH!

Slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things.  Tomorrow I will begin my workout regimen.  3-5 lifting days, 3-5 cardio/core exercises, 1 circuit training day per week.  This flabby mess will be a solid hunk of muscle if I have to kill myself doing it.  I think I am starting to get a handle on the root of my frustrations and anger as of late.  Little things have been bothering me but I could never tell why.  I have been tracking every little thing that triggers anger/changes in mood the past couple days.  The irritability has been messing with my motivation to workout and eat well.  I think this will be an essential step towards progressing.  It is helping make me realize that a lot of the time they are silly things that I really shouldn't be wasting my time fuming over and hurting my health.

Stressing and anger increases risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and damage to other organs, and generally interfere with the normal functioning of a lot of our various systems.  Also these mental states have been known to slow down metabolism, decrease motivation, and increase cravings and susceptibility to addictions, of which food is for me.  The best way of tackling problems like these is by finding the root of them and going at it from there and I think I will be able to pinpoint that and start working on it.  I am going to start tackling the various stressors that I can get out of the way so I can move beyond this overwhelmed feeling.  Another thing I have to keep in mind is that life is not always fair and I can't expect the general populous to live to my expectations of common courtesy and respect.  If I can accept that, then that will eliminate a number of my frustrations.

Anyways, I am all over the place!  I am kind of starting to take posting as a way to let my flow of consciousness materialize on this page.  It can be somewhat therapeutic.  Please comment on any of my ramblings, let me know if I'm totally out of left field with any of my assumptions and observations :) I need to start accepting others' help, I cannot do this by myself and of course I am no subject matter expert when it comes to this new found Type A personality that came out of 2012 and when it comes to physical fitness.  All I know is that I am extremely sure I want to improve myself in every way possible.  This ten years of laziness and procrastination needs to be on its way out for good.  Kiss it goodbye and let the door hit it hard on the arse on the way out!

I will see you all in two days and let you know how the new Mike is turning out!

Michael OUT!

What's going on??

Hey guys! So what week is this now? It's week 20! i can't believe it,only 32 more weeks to go for 2013! Believe me,we have a lot of work to do still!

As Mike explained we sort if have up and let life take over.  Our good eating habits that we achieved over the past couple of months began to slowly dwindle back to the awful habits we once encountered.  After weeks of feeling not the greatest due to these bad choices we decided it is time to start over again!!

My new schedule is going well at work.  I am rather enjoying working directly with dementia and Alzheimer's patients tremendously!  SInce my schedule is strictly first shift is it slowly becoming easier to be motivated to work out!  You will be happy to know last week I went on 3 bike rides! I am going to strive to do three bike rides this week as well as two strength training work outs!  I have also been using the fitness buddy app on my iPhone and watching my calorie intake, it is really useful! If anyone wants to add me feel free!  i would love to have more fitness buddies :)

Due to not weighing ourselves today look forward to pictures tomorrow!!! I can't wait until then!

Jocelyn!!

The Return

It has been an eventful and busy several weeks where we lost sight of this blog and our new way, lifestyle change.  Like a number of people in this world we let ourselves become overwhelmed with all the demands and trials life has given to us.  This made it difficult to see the forest through the trees, at least for me.  I was able to take a step back on my trip home this past weekend and see the source of some of my feelings and laziness as well. 

I have decided to focus on two primary goals to get a hold back on my life.  One - get some after hours projects done and over with to alleviate the extra stress and free up time to actually wind down from the stresses of work and other things. Two - ignore my initial gut reactions to things, as they tend to stop me from accomplishing anything.  As well as think things through before making decisions on whether or not I want to go on a bike ride today, work on after hours work today, clean around the house today, post on the blog today, etc...I need to balance out how I think, with respect to myself and with respect to others. Sometimes I neglect myself and sometimes others.

This weekend, a couple of our awesome followers brought the blog up to me and how it was a help to them in a variety of forms.  Thanks to them, this totally reaffirmed my belief in the value of continuing this blog.  Thank you!! I will begin posting more and more as we resume our lifestyle change.  More frequent shorter posts unlike this one lol :) This time through it will not be entirely focused only on what happened that day/week with regards to the lifestyle change but also about life in Toledo and updates about Jocelyn and I as we become more active this summer.  Some of our loyal followers had made it clear that they liked reading because it was a window into what/how we were doing.

I do not know why I didn't think of this originally in regards to this blog, but 'lifestyle' is not just about how we eat and how we exercise, but also about how we think, how we feel, what we do with each other, how we treat others.  This is a great opportunity to reshape every facet that needs reshaping and keep everyone up to date on our progress in hopes to better our situation and to be inspirational to others and show everyone even our lazy butts can get it done ;) 

Okay I think I bored you all to tears enough.  :) Jocelyn just got home so I am going to greet her with a smile and big open arms!

Michael OUT